


Rule number one: don't fuck with librarians

by significantalliance



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, SOFT RICHIE, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-20 01:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12421947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/significantalliance/pseuds/significantalliance
Summary: Three times Richie Tozier broke the rules, one time he didn't.[The Library AU that no one asked for.]





	Rule number one: don't fuck with librarians

**Author's Note:**

> Hi folks,  
> I've been in the IT fandom for a while now but this is the first IT fic I've ever written! This is mostly a high school AU: Richie is much softer than he's supposed to be and Eddie doesn't freak out as much about germs lol. They're both about 16/17 in this and there's no mention of Pennywise whatsoever, again, it's just a little AU! Mostly fluff, so I hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave kudos and comments, so it might encourage me to write more stuff!
> 
> PS: the title came from a quote by the way haha.

Richie Tozier was running late. _So_ late. On his way back from Beverly Marsh’s place, where they had hung out as usual, chatting about music and life in general, he had suddenly remembered his original plans: joining Bill and Stan at the local library. He was so dead. If they knew that he had purposely ditched them for a girl, whoever she was, they would be so pissed. Richie, despite being the loudest person of the school, was probably also one of the smartest, which exasperated most of his classmates to no end. Fortunately, his friends had been used to his behavior since first grade and knew how to benefit from that cleverness instead of throwing a fit about it. Except they would exactly do that today if they thought Richie was letting them down, simply because he was too smart for them. Richie knew he was certainly overreacting but he had already witnessed Stan feeling this way multiple times. Even though they were used to his constant teasing, he didn’t want them to take it to heart. The least Richie wanted was to hurt his friends. They were the only ones forcing him to stay in town at this point. Unlike the others, he didn’t need to wait for college to leave Derry behind: surely because he didn’t plan on going anyway. Between his job at the drugstore and the music shop, he had accumulated a large enough amount of money to get his own car or a plane ticket to New York, Philly or Boston. As soon as his eighteen birthday would come, he was out of that hole.

His racing mind was disturbing his march along the sidewalk. Unaware of his current surroundings, he stumbled right before the library and shuffled through the large doors of the place, heading towards his friends. What he didn’t expect was to find himself colliding into a small and hard figure, a half dozen books tumbling to the floor in the process.

“Watch the fuck where you’re going, asshole!” hissed a strangely sweet voice.

Still staring at the books scattered against the carpet, a slow smirk progressively formed on Richie’s lips, not a tiniest bit intimidated by the boy’s tone.

“I could say the same about you.”

“There’s no running in the library!” The boy grunted, clearly becoming frustrated.

When Richie finally raised his eyes and fixed his glasses with his usual weird face scrunching, he was met with the first sight of Eddie Kaspbrak and what was certainly not going to be the last.

* * *

 

The second time Richie met Eddie Kaspbrak, new librarian’s son according to high school sources, he was going back to the library by himself. The night had been rough for several reasons, but mostly consisting of his dad beating the shit out of him. It was a chilly Friday night, which meant the last place where Richie could go was still open until nine. He ran his long fingers along his face, wincing when his hand came across his bruised –most certainly broken- nose. He wished nothing but to be at calm right now or he would explode of rage for certain.

The saturated light hit his features as soon as he opened the doors of the library, letting a breeze of cold air rushing into the warm place. Behind the counter, a middle-aged woman (probably Eddie’s mother) was reading quietly, enjoying the last moments at work. Her lips instantly started to open once she had gotten a good look of Richie’s state but the comment that followed wasn’t hers.

“What the hell happened to you, Tozier?”

Richie, perplexed as to why the rather small teenager knew his name, didn’t let his shock come to the surface.

“How do you know my name?”

“We’re at the same school, duh.” Eddie shrugged nonchalantly, digging his feet into the ground.

“You’re the new kid, how come you already know so much about me?” Richie teased, rather enjoying the blush that creeped up Eddie’s cheeks while his mother gave them a look, before heading at the back of the office.

“Stop thinking I’m a stalker, you idiot! It’s hard to go a day without hearing about you when teachers are constantly yelling your name in the halls!”

“I see you’ve been paying attention to me,” Richie playfully said.

“Oh c’mon, give me a fucking break! As if you hadn’t heard my name already, with the rumors that have been circling around me-“

“Wait, which rumors?” Richie interrupted, his air softening at the sudden dismayed look on the brown-haired boy’s face.

“Really? You don’t know about them? They- ugh, never mind.”

Eddie looked at his feet defeatingly, clearly upset about something that Richie had no idea about. He felt bad for the kid: not only was it awful enough to move in fucking Derry but being treated like crap on his first days was the worst. Richie could definitely relate to this situation, despite having lived in this town most of his life.

“Hey,” he suggested softly, “Wanna go read comics with me? As you’ve probably seen, I’m not having the time of my life right now, so I wouldn’t mind a little bit of company.”

Eddie gulped quietly, probably not expecting this. Richie’s heart tightened at this because he knew for a fact that Eddie Kaspbrack was probably the same loser as he was, rarely receiving kindness from most of people. As Eddie was rounding the counter to join him, Richie rummaged through his jeans pockets in search of the granola bar he barely had time to grab, before leaving his house. He startled as he heard Eddie’s screech behind him, when the other boy saw the bar in his hand.

“There’s no eating in the library!”

Richie laughed wholeheartedly at the boy’s expression and they bantered back and forth playfully on the way to the bookshelves.

* * *

 

When Eddie and Richie met for the third time, the situation was definitely not as comfortable as the previous one. As Richie barged in the library on a Saturday afternoon, one week after their second encounter, Eddie was perched on the library ladder, reorganizing books in alphabetical order on the top shelves. He was so small that he could barely reach the novels and had to stand on his tiptoes. Richie watched him for a little while, silently, as Eddie muttered to himself about god knew what.

He realized as he gazed at the boy’s short fingers pulling out the books, that a sentiment he knew all too well, was spreading through his chest: affection. Pure affection as he stared fondly at Eddie being Eddie, organized, steady and perfect. He didn’t know how this feeling had emerged but he wasn’t going to try and tone it down, now that he finally had an idea of what happiness could taste like.

All of a sudden, as if Eddie could have sensed someone staring at his back, turned around on the ladder and looked puzzled for a second, watching Richie back in the eyes. They remained in this position for a moment, before a child scream interrupted them and frightened Eddie on his ladder.

Richie watched in horror as Eddie accidentally loosened his grip on the wood and slipped, letting the books crash to the ground at the same time. Richie didn’t have much time to react: he was by Eddie’s side in two steps as the latter’s scream immediately stopped when he realized he had hit someone’s arms instead of the floor.

It took a little while for Richie to see that his friend was in fact not okay: his breaths were terribly fast and his face was paling by the second.

“Eds!” He yelled, concern all over his face and judging what to do. “Deep breaths, Eds, one at a time…”

Richie knew he didn’t have the most soothing voice but he couldn’t bare watching Eddie getting worse while he lay there in his arms, trying to do the best he could at catching his breathe.

“Oh my god, oh my god…” A sudden and familiar voice reached his ears. “What did you do to him? He has asthma!”

Miss Kaspbrak appeared at his side and nearly ripped her son away from his hands while Eddie was still desperately attempting to breathe.

“Here, here…” She cooed while pushing what seemed like an inhaler between Eddie’s slightly purpled lips.

“Is he going to be okay? I mean-“

“Just go.” Miss Kasprak spit forcefully while checking her son for possible injuries.

“What?”

Richie didn’t want to leave Eddie or be the cause of Miss Kasprak’s hatred while he wasn’t exactly the cause of Eddie’s incident.

“I SAID GO!”

As Richie clumsily got to the doors, all shaken up by the situation, he couldn’t help but looked back one last time at Eddie’s figure lying on the floor, barely moving. He shivered, promising himself he would never approach Eddie again. Because he knew he would be able to stay away from him. At least, for now. But there was one thing he was sure he could never do: hurt Eddie Kaspbrak.

* * *

 

Richie dragged his feet along the sidewalk as Bill and Stan were chatting animatedly ahead of him, seemingly having forgotten he was even here. Their hands kept brushing against each other’s and it didn’t look like they were going to stop anytime soon. Richie’s heart broke a little at the sight, subconsciously wishing that Eddie could be by his side. It had been two weeks since the librarian ladder incident. Despite being certain that Miss Kaspbrak disliked him for a whole another reason, he didn’t have the heart to face Eddie yet.

But Bill being Bill and Stan being Stan, they could no longer study at home and refused to hear Richie complaining one more time. And Richie being Richie, he eventually decided to tag along because he could no longer stay at home as well, but for a whole different reason. He had covered his usual ruffled hair with a gray beanie, because the December cold weather was starting to hit his skin but mostly because he needed an excuse to hide as best as he could.

They entered the library as silently as possible and Richie headed right away towards the tables in the very back, where no one would come bothering him. Despite his cold and red cheeks, his hands were sweating with nervousness. He couldn’t fathom the feeling that was crawling up his spine and leaving him speechless. As he was scattering his sheets and textbooks across the table, a distinct thud of a heavy object clattering on the floor, quickly alarmed him.

Right behind his chair was standing a rather sheepish Eddie Kaspbrak and Richie thought that the sight of his flushed cheeks was rapidly becoming his favorite thing. If multiple ideas to make Eddie blush came to mind, he kept a neutral facade, struggling to fight off the smile forming on his lips. He had promised to himself that he would behave and as upset as it was making him, that he would cut ties with Eddie whenever the situation presented itself. Turned out it had happened faster than he thought.

“Listen-“

“Listen-“

They both awkwardly cringed. Richie hid his face in his sweater, bracing himself for the spiteful words. But they never came. All at once, before Richie could comprehend what was vaguely occurring, tiny hands found his face, dark eyes searched for his own and seconds later, smooth lips captured his, erasing every last rational thought. His heart went thundering in his rib-cage. Edward _fucking_ Kaspbrak was kissing _him_. His lips tasted just as Richie had imagined them: sweet, clean and incredibly soft. He was immensely aware of the noises they were originating but really couldn’t care less. Dragged to his feet by the front of his shirt, Richie had really no other choice but to follow the smaller teen between the shelves.

“B-but-… Isn’t there a “no kissing in the library” rule?” Richie stuttered, being the timid one between Eddie’s hands.

Out of breath, the boy in concern gripped Richie’s tight curls under his beanie, pulling him towards his chest and ready to quiet him.

“I can make an exception for this time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys for reading and check out my Tumblr page for more IT content: @legendslovers


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